CVE-2022-21620 in VM VirtualBox
Summary
by MITRE • 10/19/2022
Vulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox product of Oracle Virtualization (component: Core). Supported versions that are affected are Prior to 6.1.40. Difficult to exploit vulnerability allows high privileged attacker with logon to the infrastructure where Oracle VM VirtualBox executes to compromise Oracle VM VirtualBox. While the vulnerability is in Oracle VM VirtualBox, attacks may significantly impact additional products (scope change). Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in takeover of Oracle VM VirtualBox. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 7.5 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/26/2026
CVE-2022-21620 represents a critical privilege escalation vulnerability within Oracle VM VirtualBox's core component that demonstrates the dangerous potential of insider threats in virtualized environments. This vulnerability exists in versions prior to 6.1.40 and requires an attacker with legitimate logon credentials to the host system where VirtualBox operates, making it a sophisticated attack vector that leverages existing access privileges rather than exploiting external entry points. The vulnerability's classification as difficult to exploit reflects the high privileges required for successful compromise, yet its potential impact remains severe given the privileged nature of the attack vector. The CVSS score of 7.5 indicates a high severity level with significant impacts across confidentiality, integrity, and availability domains, suggesting that successful exploitation could result in complete system compromise and unauthorized access to virtualized environments. The attack scenario involves an authenticated user with local access who can manipulate the VirtualBox core functionality, potentially leading to complete system takeover through carefully crafted malicious inputs or code execution within the virtualization layer.
The technical flaw manifests in the insufficient input validation and privilege handling mechanisms within Oracle VM VirtualBox's core architecture, where proper access controls fail to prevent elevated operations from being executed by compromised local accounts. This vulnerability operates at the kernel level of the virtualization stack, where the boundary between host and guest operating systems becomes compromised through inadequate privilege separation. The scope change aspect of this vulnerability indicates that successful exploitation can extend beyond the immediate VirtualBox application to impact additional virtualization products and underlying infrastructure components, creating cascading security implications that extend far beyond the initial attack surface. This behavior aligns with CWE-284, which addresses improper access control issues in software systems, particularly where insufficient privilege checking allows unauthorized operations to be performed by privileged users. The vulnerability's design flaw stems from inadequate sandboxing and privilege separation mechanisms that should prevent a local user with access to the VirtualBox execution environment from escalating their privileges to system-level control.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation to encompass complete system compromise and potential data exfiltration from virtualized environments. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to establish persistent backdoors within the virtualization infrastructure, potentially compromising multiple virtual machines running on the same host system. The confidentiality impact is particularly severe as the vulnerability could allow attackers to access sensitive data stored within virtual machines, while the integrity implications extend to potential modification of virtual disk images, configuration files, and system-level virtualization parameters. Availability concerns arise from the potential for complete system shutdown or resource exhaustion through malicious manipulation of VirtualBox core processes. The CVSS vector analysis reveals that this vulnerability requires local access with high privileges and high attack complexity, indicating that while the attack path is not trivial, the potential damage is substantial. This aligns with ATT&CK technique T1068, which covers local privilege escalation through exploitation of software vulnerabilities, and demonstrates how internal security controls can be bypassed when virtualization platforms contain unpatched security flaws.
Organizations must implement comprehensive mitigation strategies including immediate patching of all affected VirtualBox installations to version 6.1.40 or later, along with enhanced monitoring of local system access and privilege changes within virtualization environments. Network segmentation and least privilege access controls should be enforced for systems running VirtualBox, while regular security audits of virtualization infrastructure should include vulnerability assessments targeting hypervisor components. The implementation of additional security controls such as mandatory access controls, enhanced logging, and real-time monitoring of virtualization layer activities can help detect and prevent exploitation attempts. System administrators should consider implementing automated patch management solutions to ensure timely deployment of security updates and maintain detailed audit trails of all VirtualBox-related activities. Organizations should also review their incident response procedures to include specific protocols for virtualization platform compromises, ensuring that security teams are prepared to handle the unique challenges posed by hypervisor-level attacks that can affect multiple virtual environments simultaneously.